ASSESSMENT OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS REACTIONS - THE IMPACT OF EVENT-SCALE - REVISED

A German translation of the revised Impact of Event Scale (Weiss & Mar mar, 1996) is introduced as a self-report questionnaire for post traum atic stress reactions and statistically tested. Three subscales - intr usion, avoidance. and hyperarousal - measure different aspects of reac tions to, or symptoms of extreme stress. Analyses are based on two sam ples of former political prisoners in East Germany (N = 128) and crime victims (N = 30). Post traumatic stress symptoms were assessed in par allel by a structured clinical interview. Results showed sufficient de grees of reliability, validity, and diagnostic sensitivity. We propose an estimation equation for diagnostic purposes which has been cross-v alidated with the two samples. Problems with factorial validity and th e underrepresentation of numbing symptoms are discussed.